November
wards Gala honours Sculpture Walk winners
Despite the absence of performer Shane Koyczan, who's flight from Vancouver was cancelled, the Castlegar Sculpturewalk Gala was another shining success.
About a dozen of the 30 Sculpturewalk artists were in attendance Saturday night at the Element Club for the gala. The big People's Choice Award winner was Patient Hunter by Kevin Kratz and James Karthein of Krestova.
The Artistic Merit award went to Kate Tupper of Argenta for Full Metal Jacket.
"It's the best year ever," said Pat Field, former Sculpturewalk president and project manager who still helps out. "We have 30 sculptures and 30 artists and 7,800 happy people. It's been pretty fantastic."
When Sculpturewalk began three years, Field and his group could only imagine the success the program would eventually become.
"We knew it would take three to five years to do a culture change," he said. "What I mean by culture change is where people's values, attitudes and behaviours change and they actually care about art - which they do now. They take their families down there, their kids down. It's part of the fabric of the community now. That's why we're going to be able to make it sustainable because people are thinking about sculptures now. It's a really neat transition."
Field was impressed with this year's group of sculptures and thinks the talent grows each year.
"We have such a variety of sculptures of different mediums," he said. "We have stone, we have metal, we have ceramic, we have bronze, we have steel. So many different mediums and so many ideas. Some people are humorous, some people are joyous, some are very serious while others are ethereal. That's what makes this a success. There's something for everybody."
Without the headlining performer, audiences had more of a chance to mingle and chat.
"It was kind of neat, because it gave people a better opportunity to communicate," said Field. "Everybody is socializing a lot more. People are now coming to these events, now for the third year, they know each other. They haven't seen each other for a year. Everybody has a smile on. Everybody recognized that this is a neat social event."
The Sculpturewalk committee is already busy planning for next year's event.
The call for sculptors closes on Nov. 1," said Field. "The new ones are juried in on Nov. 15 of this year."
The current sculptures will stay up until April and the new ones will go up in May.
Artistic Merit
4th Place ($500): Sack Race, artist Roger Golden (Toronto, ON)
3rd Place ($500): Look And You Will Find It, artist Kate Christopher (Mahtomedi, MN)
2nd Place ($1000) QR, artist Carl Schlichting (Winlaw, BC)
Winner ($3000): Full Metal Basket, artist Kate Tupper (Argenta, BC)
People's Choice
3rd Place tie ($500 each): Dancing Myself, artist Rabi'a (Winlaw, BC)
Soaring, artist Spring Shine (Argenta, BC)
2nd Place ($1000): Salmon, artist Christina Nick (Brackendale, BC)
Winner (sculpture purchased by City of Castlegar for permanent display, $3000 cash): Patient Hunter, artists Kevin Kratz and James Karthein (Krestova, BC)
August
Saints put away Vikes for record tying win number 12
Selkirk College closed out its 2012 schedule on Saturday night with a bang, tying the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League record for the longest regular season win streak at 12 games by defeating the University of Victoria by a 6-1 score at the Castlegar Recreation Complex.
The Saints' offence came alive in the second period after Beau Taylor and Mark Prest had traded goals in a tight opening 20 minutes. Nick Cecconi started the rally, putting Selkirk ahead 2:16 into the frame when he banged home a loose puck from the side of the crease off a Matt Luongo feed. Connor McLaughlin tipped home a Justin Sotkowy point shot on the power-play midway through the period to extend the lead to two, and Logan Proulx added another just 1:23 later off a nice set-up from linemate Jackson Garrett.
Thomas Hardy, in his first game back from injury, and Mason Spear capped the scoring in the third period.
"We came out of the gates a little slow tonight but the guys found their legs in the second period and really dictated the speed and tempo of the game from there," says Saints head coach Jeff Dubois. "It was good to close out the first half of our schedule with a complete team effort -- we got goals from all four of our forward lines and solid performances on the blueline and in goal."
With the win, the Saints tied the BCIHL record for the longest regular season winning streak originally set by UVic during the 2007/08 season. They'll have to wait for the opportunity to set a new record, though, as the team now breaks for college exams and holidays before returning to the ice on January 12th against Simon Fraser University.
"As a group, coming into the season we knew we had all the ingredients to be a contending team," says Dubois. "It's all come together a lot quicker than we expected, and now the challenge is to approach the second half of the season with the same work ethic and intensity that we saw over the past two months. You don't win championships based on how you play in October or November, but it's also satisfying to go into a long break with lots of positives."
In net, Alex Sirard stopped 26 shots to pick up his eighth win in as many appearances for the Saints. Sunny Gill took the loss for the Vikes, allowing six goals on 43 shots.
SAINTS NOTES: With BCIHL play completed until January, a total of six Saints feature in the Top 10 in league scoring. Jordan Wood and Logan Proulx lead the way with 26 and 24 points respectively, while Kam Crawford, Connor McLaughlin, Cody Fidgett and Thomas Hardy sit sixth through ninth.
Selkirk sits tops in the six-team BCIHL, seven points ahead of SFU. The Clan have a pair of games in hand, which they will make up on January 4th and 5th before heading to Castlegar to face the Saints on January 12th.